SmartBook Reviews

SmartBook itself is terrible; McGraw hill is terrible. To start, SmartBook is for iPads only, okay, it’s 2019, everyone has a smart phone. When you open SmartBook it turns the whole screen sideways, and guess what? You have to log in, cool, protect my information. However, once you log in, be prepared to do it again because SmartBook constantly crashes and the little remember button doesn’t remember you...ever. If you get in, the first thing you see is your old course. Why is this showing me old courses? Then why, on top of that, does it feel like a loading battle to get to the course i want? The screen freezes and will crash again once you finally get to your course, so be prepared for that. If and when you get to your course maybe you can read the book or do the practice. Good luck. McGraw-Hill, you are a disappointment to the college students who need this because their instructors have them use it.

Okay, I just want to clarify. If you are using this app for your class go to your Blackboard. Once you are there open the link for your assignment from Blackboard! This will eliminate so many issues. If it’s your first time using SmartBook don’t sign in once your app downloads. Go back to Blackboard and click your assignment. Click Launch and it will automatically sign you in. The only two issues I have are as follows: I can’t zoom in on questions or pages. When it’s asking me a multiple choice question I’m trying to hit one answer, but the choices are so tiny and close together that it’s hard to make sure you hit the right one. (Some questions are once you hit an answer you can’t change it.) My second downfall for SmartBook is, if you are on the computer version and you need to click the “Read About This” button it takes you right to the spot you need to read about. In SmartBook version it mostly just puts you are the last spot you read from or some random other spot on the page. Overall it’s a great tool if your laptop is down for some reason.

SmartBook could easily be a 5 star if it weren’t for the three biggest problems. SmartBook crashes and kicks you off every so often, can’t finish a single chapter’s assignment without it crashing. The second problem is that you have to keep signing in, even after setting your phone/tablet down for 5 minute. The last problem is that when you want to go to the read section about the question it’s asking, it’ll either sometimes won’t load, but if it did, it’ll mostly take you to the beginning of the chapter.

Other than those three problems, SmartBook is a great app. It provides you questions about the subject matter, it’ll generate questions that will help you in the areas that you are most struggling with, and it asks you different types of questions, i.e, multiple choice, multiple selection, fill in the blanks. It’ll even ask you the same questions in a different format to the areas that you are struggling to remember in. Overall, I would love to give SmartBook a 5 star, but I can’t mainly because of three issues that I have to give it a 2 star, -1 star per issue. If these issues could be fixed, that would be awesome!

This apps lacks the capabilities it would need to be a fully functioning and helpful study tool, especially when it’s being used increasingly more in the college setting. You can only use SmartBook horizontally which does not allow you to scroll to the bottom of some screens to select OK (such as on the “show as ___ or anonymous” screen) and only displays about 5 lines of the text so you are constantly scrolling. The mechanics for the Drag-and-Drop questions either never work or randomly put items together when you try to move them. You need to wait a few seconds for SmartBook to load the next question or you will accidentally skip questions by clicking the I Think So or Unsure buttons (even though it takes a split second to process if you have the answer right or not). If developers created this with higher standards and greater expectations, SmartBook could have been an amazing tool for students who don’t have the capability of purchasing computers/accessing public ones.

SmartBook is counterproductive to my learning experience. It’s not useable in any manner on a phone or tablet because of how poorly it was designed. It’s been utterly awful for an incredibly long time with no improvements. Why am I paying literally hundreds of dollars for your books when you can’t even give back by helping students out that have busy lives and need to get work done when they don’t have access to their computers. Just take all of the 50 confusing/non-functioning apps (you for some reason have to go into separately only to find out they don’t work) off of SmartBook Store and commit to one almost BARELY functioning app and it will be a massive step forward. Holy cow you guys deserve to pay me to use your TrashBook! Please, if you’re not going to make improvements, take it off SmartBook Store and stop tricking me into downloading it every time I have a glimmer of hope starting a semester.

Editors, I sincerely hope you look at your iPhone users’s feedback and take it to heart.
I am currently attending school online. I am using online textbooks through McGraw Hill. Reading them off my Mac causes eye strain since I am more used to reading off my iPhone. When I downloaded SmartBook, I really wanted it work. However, red flags went up as soon as I realized it was locked into landscape view. There should be a portrait view that is streamlined that incorporates info graphics to provide a smooth experience. Take for example, Apple’s website. Editors, please look at Apple’s website for inspiration.
Another thing I really wished was better was the overall tabs, settings, and entire app layout. It’s cluttered, and distracts me from reading. I will not be able to use SmartBook unfortunately to read my assignments and will have to rely upon my Mac in the meantime. Editors, please format SmartBook for iPhone.

I honestly have no clue why I can’t see half of the pages I, meant to read. They’re permanently stuck on the loading page. Please fix this I CANNOOOOT read on the go like SmartBook is supposed to. I’ve reset SmartBook so many times. Even tried on my iPads web browser. Just takes you back to SmartBook . Im so upset I have so many chapters to read and I can’t until I get home it kind of defeats the purpose of the convince SmartBook has. SmartBook is just so difficult to work with. It logs you out after so long, doesn’t remember log in credentials.

The website on laptop works fine. ALSO for visually impaired users, there SHOULD BE a read aloud option. I can’t believe there isn’t. Very ableist. Can you imagine how many users can’t consume the proper information because of limitations SmartBook has????

SmartBook is unacceptable. They don’t care bc you have to use it anyway. Go on safari and hit the interactive button then forced to download or open SmartBook . SmartBook is bugged worse than any software program I’ve ever seen. Crashes at seemingly random time but always while I’m answering the questions. Interactive doesn’t have narration and narration doesn’t have interactive. Interactive is a joke itself. Blue box flashes at you to be so annoying you must click. When you do you start the crash countdown. When’s it gonna happen?, don’t know but I’ve learned there are three guarantees in life death and taxes and SmartBook crashing. I wonder how I can get the government or school board involved in this. As it’s gotta be a huge waste of money for some powerful regulatory entity.

This is literally the worst. As a high school student, I should be able to get my homework IN NO TIME. It’s unnecessary and isn’t convenient. I get SmartBook because it won’t let me access online and yet, I STILL CANT EVEN USE IT. McGraw Hill, if you guys only put as much work into your apps like you do with all of your textbooks and worksheets etc, I don’t think any of your apps would’ve gotten 1-2 stars. You need to get with the times and find a way to make this convenient with everyone because this isn’t working out. Not everyone can access a computer right then and there. Get your act straight and fix all your apps. This should be one of your priorities because every student tries to use this and always ends up getting to nowhere. Get it together.

SmartBook seriously needs to be updated. I opened SmartBook on my iPad Pro and the entire layout doesn’t even fit my screen, which means there’s huge black borders on each side. SmartBook does not support split screen which is extremely disappointing if you take notes on your iPad. SmartBook looks like it was created in 2007 😑. I assumed I could use split screen if I opened the smart book on safari, nope. The system refuses to let me use the smart book and only gives me access to the book through this pitiful app. I’m allowed to use split screen on my other McGraw Hill apps. Why not this one? You should really fix SmartBook or take it off SmartBook Store and allow access for mobile devices on safari.

Constant logging in almost defeats the convenience of mobile study. The remember me button is useless and will begin to thoroughly patronize you. The menus are so confusing and when you get to your section (if you don’t accidentally log yourself out) the homework is not I order. You have to select an old assignment to see all of your graded assignments and assignments to come (thankfully in order). Once you get into the assignment it is a fairly good experience (hence the second star)... unless you go to another app, wait too long, or pretty much anything else- YOU’RE LOGGED OUT & with no trace that you were ever “remembered”. Needs work.

Fire your entire dev team, delete your apps, and use the ridiculous amount of money you scam us students out of to hire a squad of chimpanzees that could do better than your shameful array of apps. There are too many critical issues to even list in one review, but for the love of Godzilla at least fix the login. Maybe try making the “remember me” button actually have a function? Maybe make the text boxes bigger than Antman’s pinky toe? Or try having SmartBook work in Portrait mode so I don’t have to read one dreadful line at a time?

I’d like to see what preschool class you hired to make all of these and I’m even more interested to know how you tricked the management of our schools into using this garbage.

I’m so frustrated with SmartBook. I can’t do my work due to chapters not loading. I’ve learned that if you spend too much time on one chapter, besides the recorder coming on to tell you you've spent too much h time and to proceed on to take the practice test, it seems as if it disables the rest of the chapter pages. The only way to get to them is to go to the practice test and then hit the car right option to view the chapter. This is not a seamless process when all I want to do is read, annotate key points and then take the practice test. It’s frustrating and does not work as easily as it could. Please fix it or discount the price until students can use it without finding a workaround.

Functionality is low. No way to zoom in or out of photos. Can’t access self study on mobile. They haven’t thought of an option outside of Flashplayer (WHICH IPHONES DONT HAVE ACCESS TO), I can’t read my textbooks, ReadAnywhere doesn’t support one of my textbooks. For a company that’s been in education this long you think your apps would have some functionality and be user friendly but I guess not. So obviously I’m going to uninstall all of these trash apps and just use my laptop to study which is incredibly inconvenient. Don’t put out an app if you don’t intend to listen to the people that utilize it. I mean you have an average rating of 1.3 why haven’t you fixed these issues????

Why the amount of money that is charged students for these programs? I had to pay $92 for my biology access and that was just this semester. I’ve needed to do something similar every semester since I started college 2 years ago. When you add up all that money, I wonder where its going, considering SmartBook is absolutely useless. Basically when you buy this, you’re only buying access to a laptop because not only can you NOT complete tasks on an iPad, you can’t even use SmartBook because it logs you out consistently, the program crashes without saving your assignment. I hate this and I’m just confused now. Where is my hard-worked money going?